Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Bank, 2007). These basins are characterized by growth of value and a broaden-
ing of institutions to support more resilient growth. These conditions occur
within parts of the São Francisco and Andes, as well as regionally in the
Mekong, Limpopo and Yellow River basins (Kirby et al., 2010b; Mulligan et
al., 2012b; Ringler et al., 2012; Sullivan and Sibanda, 2012). Now value-
adding of non-agricultural activities dominates national economies but
agriculture remains an important contributor to rural livelihoods. Declining
fertility stabilizes population, although total demand on ecosystem services
continues to grow as per capita consumption of food and energy increases, as
does the demand for meat and dairy products.
Poverty persists in pockets, amongst groups who are excluded from urban-
centered prosperity or amongst the urban poor, many of whom may be recent
migrants from agriculture. Availability of adequate, clean water may be
recognized as a major constraint to long-term development. Political discourse
reflects a growing recognition of the reliance on regulating ecosystem services
and institutions to distribute risks and benefits more widely. Valuation and
trading of water and other ecosystem services emerges, although by this stage,
degradation of some ecosystem services may have proceeded to a point at
which loss is permanent.
Conclusions
This analysis from ten river basins at different stages of development indicated
that stresses are emerging in some basins as a result of unsustainable exploitation
of natural resources, which are affecting ecosystem services. In contrast, we
found that underutilized productive capacity, unequal access and unbalanced
development are more widespread. While the underutilized capacity is
sufficient—in theory—to satisfy the food and energy demands of populations
to 2050, the unequal access and unbalanced development yield, in turn,
relative poverty and exclusion in all basins. We therefore consider three
conditions as necessary to achieve better income and food security. First, we
see a need for a major increase in agricultural productivity, particularly in
rainfed systems. Second, there needs to be greater sharing of benefits and risks
between different groups of people to capitalize on the collective benefits.
Third, changes toward more collaborative use of ecosystem services require
long-term investment, which must be underwritten by political discourse. The
discourse must recognize the development process and how development
impacts the ecosystem services that are used to support it.
Having observed that poverty is more dependent on the stage of devel-
opment of the country's or basin's economy, the CPWF reoriented its approach
toward addressing specific development issues or challenges in basins, which has
led to designing the approaches described in further chapters.
We know that our conclusions are based on data that are often less detailed
and less reliable than we would like, even though they are the best available, but
we did not attempt to draw detailed conclusions. The conclusions drawn are
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